If Conor McGregor manages to beat Floyd Mayweather on Saturday, it won’t come without controversy. With no pro boxing experience, the Irishman should be a walkover for the 49-0 boxing legend, but perhaps a fair fight isn’t what the two men want.
Enter golfer Rory McIlroy, a self-proclaimed McGregor fan, he worries that what’s been called a “megafight” by the event’s promoters is nothing more than dog-and-pony show meant to make both men rich. Make that double rich if McGregor gets the upset and Mayweather demands a rematch.
“I hope it’s not in any way fixed,” the four-time major winner said (via the Independent) this week during a news conference ahead of the Northern Trust tournament.
“Imagine McGregor knocks him out in the first couple of rounds. They would get even more for the rematch. The rematch would be even bigger,” McIlroy continued. “I just don’t know what that zero on Mayweather’s record is worth, and that’s the thing. That’s his legacy. If he goes down and lies down for 10 seconds at some point in that, you know, is that worth making an extra few hundred million [dollars]? That’s sort of up to him.”
The lead-up to Saturday’s fight has been a circus, with both fighters jawing at each other that at times resembled a pro wrestling match. Unlike pro wrestling, however, the trash talk between McGregor and Mayweather is supposedly real. Or is it? McIlroy wondered.
“I just fear that they do all this trash-talking and they go behind the scenes and they are having a laugh and thinking, ‘I can’t believe we are talking all this public for a ride,’ ” the Northern Irishman and avid fight fan said. “We are all buying into it and they are like, ‘Can you believe these people believe this?’ I just hope it doesn’t turn into it …”
McIlroy appears to be the most famous person to question the fight’s authenticity publicly, although others have wondered what might be motivating both fighters.
GQ’s Mick Rouse offered an interesting take in July, noting he’s not “suggesting that the fix is in, but rather that there is a plan in place.”
That plan involves Mayweather winning fairly then becoming McGregor’s promoter — something the UFC, which has McGregor under contract, might not be too thrilled about.
Rouse argues that Mayweather sees McGregor as a cash cow worth milking for the long-term.
“Despite the uncertainty surrounding his actual boxing ability, Conor McGregor is the biggest name in combat sports. Conor McGregor generates fanfare in both Europe and America. Conor McGregor has watched enough YouTube videos of Ric Flair to sell anyone on a fight, whether in the octagon or in a boxing ring. Conor McGregor permeates the mainstream in a way that no boxer has since, well, Floyd Mayweather himself,” Rouse aragules. “Who better to pass the torch to as Mayweather transitions from professional boxer to professional boxing promoter?
“Which is why you shouldn’t be surprised when Mayweather big-ups McGregor following their showdown. Which is why you should be even less surprised when it’s announced six months after this fight that Conor McGregor will be back in the boxing ring under the Mayweather Promotions banner.”
In that case, it’ll be interesting how McGregor, presumably, 0-1, can sell a fight against a lesser-known boxer.
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